There is NO Wagon

There is NO Wagon

While the origin of the “fell of the wagon” saying is referring to alcohol during probation, I’m referring to the health wagon everyone seems to keep falling off of. Here’s the thing, if you are living a healthy lifestyle, there is no wagon and you can’t fall off. If you could just switch your mindset to believe this, it would change your life forever. It would set you free. See what you do every once in a while is far less important than what you do most often. You are allowed to eat pizza and drink wine if you want this week. You are allowed to skip the gym to be with your family for a weekend. It’s okay if you stay up late to finish the last 3 episodes of a series on Netflix one night. You’ll get in trouble if that becomes your daily routine, but if your habits are to eat clean, get to the gym and get good sleep then calm down. You are going to be just fine. With health and fitness consistency over time is the only thing that works. When people refer to “the wagon“ they are talking about being perfect. And if you try to be perfect, you are setting yourself up for heartbreak. This is not an all or nothing thing. This is a “most of the time I choose” thing. Set yourself up for success, decide that you won’t beat yourself up for the things you do every once in a while and celebrate what you do most often. Get rid of the guilt for not being perfect, nobody is perfect. If you don’t like where your current habits have you on this journey start with examining what habits you have. What do you do most days? skip meal prepping? Eat ice cream every night? Skip the gym every weekend? Stay out too late every Thursday-Saturday? Skip breakfast most days? Grab a sugar filled Coffee drink a few times a week? What habits are pulling you in the opposite direction of your desired end point?

Start there.

People ask me all the time how I stay motivated, but I’m not. I’m disciplined. Once you form habits and routines it’s pretty easy to stay motivated. It’s easier to maintain habits than it is to start stop, start, “fall off the wagon”, start stop like most people do. If that’s you, maybe this year just focus on creating a few new healthy habits that you can maintain for the long haul. Then as those become part of your automatic routine, you can add a few more. Lifestyle changes happen in small daily actions repeated over time. They aren’t a sexy magic diets or new machines or new workout fads. Most people want to skip over the process and change everything all at once without going through the boring daily grind. But that’s not how it works and that is why they keep jumping from one quick fix to the next, starting and stopping but never changing anything year after year. I’m encouraging you to stop looking for the shortcut, stop looking for the magic wagon to jump on. There is no wagon, you can’t fall off. It’s your life and the results you are creating are made up daily habits compounded over time.